The first step toward finding the right employees is gathering a large enough candidate base right for the spot. You can have thousands of people applying for one position, but if only 5 of them are adequate enough to actually do the job required of them, then you will have to waste tens, if not hundreds of man-hours to actually find those 5 people. Of course, big companies have large departments to handle this sort of thing and there are rarely so many candidates, but this hypothetical is here to show what kind of crowd the wrong advert can actually attract. Even if there are only 10 people applying for a spot you want to fill, wouldn’t you rather that all ten candidates are adequate and you are choosing the best one, instead of choosing simply 1 out of 40 just because he is a little better than the others, even though not exactly what you’re looking for? It all starts with the adverb. That’s the stage that precedes the tens or hundreds of resumes you will have to go through before you start calling people to interviews and evaluating their potential. Here’s how you can write a job advert that will attract the right candidates.
Be Clear About The Job
Give a detailed description of the job. This is of paramount importance because you want people to know they are getting themselves into. When looking for a job many people will apply to as many adverts as possible in order to improve their chances. If you give a vague description about the position, you can be sure that there will be many people applying just because they are looking for a job and are not necessarily interested in your particular position. They might not even know what it is but they will still apply, which means you will have to go through their CV, translating into more pointless labor you can avoid by just being clear about what the job is.
Be Explicit About The Requirements
You’ve given a detailed description of what the job actually is. Now you have to explicitly state what kind of people you’re looking for. What are the qualities you want your potential employee to have? Be specific. Give as much information as possible – from education, through experience, to personal skills. Is it going to be a job in a team? Is it a job from home? Is he or she going solo? All of this information is relevant to the people applying. The more vague your ad is, the more people will apply, which, I think we can agree is bad for business.
State The Pay
Tell people how much they are going to earn. This is not just in your interest, but in theirs, as well. Many potential employers decide it’s a good idea to skip this and then haggle about the salary, especially in small business. This is a really bad idea. You don’t want people wondering how much they are going to earn. Imagine going through all the trouble of picking the right people for an interview, wasting your time with interviewing them, but then, all of a sudden, they realize the pay is not enough and they decide they don’t want to work for you. Then you will have wasted both your time and theirs. The easy way to avoid this is to offer a good pay in accordance to the position, as well as posting it in the advert.
Be Truthful
Don’t present the job better than it is. First of all, you will attract more people than you should, which will make handpicking the right ones harder for you. In the very least it will take more time. Second of all, if you lie about the job, then the person starts working for you and sees that things aren’t the way you presented them, you are going to lose them and they will go work for another company. This is obviously not going to happen for low-level positions that don’t matter, but as intellectual work is concerned, you can lose a lot. Truth in your advert is always good. At least you know that the people you are about to hire agree with your terms.
Morgan Johnes is keen on topics about business and technologies. He currently works in the support team of n1 tenancy cleaning services and he loves his job because he learns new things every day. Image courtesy Moyan Brenn
Great article! Honesty really is the best policy in this industry, for both the candidate and the employer. You don’t want your advert to attract the wrong people or attract someone who isn’t actually interested in the role being offered.